This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

President Obama on Thursday signed an update to the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which will let Netflix users share their video-watching activity on Facebook.

Obama approved the Video Privacy Protection Act Amendments Act of 2012, which updates a law first put into place in the 1980s.

The VPPA limits how much people can share about their video rental and viewing history. It was enacted after the video rental records of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork - who died last month at age 85 - were published in a newspaper back in 1987.

Twenty-five years later, however, the bill also thwarted Facebook's efforts to extend its "frictionless sharing" feature to U.S. Netflix users. Automatically telling your Facebook friends what you're watching on Netflix was considered a violation of the VPPA. So, U.S. users could share with Facebook the music they are listening to on Spotify, but could not link a Netflix account to Facebook due to the law's restrictions.

"We are pleased that the President signed the bill and we plan to introduce social features for our U.S. members later this year," a Neflix spokesman said today. "It is too early to discuss specifics of those features."

The House already approved a bill to update the VPPA last year, but the Senate made several recommendations. The bill approved by Obama, from Rep. Bob Goodlatte, now requires services like Netflix to obtain explicit consent for the sharing of video-watching history on outside sites like Facebook. These permission-based menus must be separate from other menus on the site, like terms of service or privacy policy approvals. That consent expires after 24 months, at which time the consumer will have to opt-in once again.

Despite the VPPA, Hulu last year rolled out an app that allowed users to share their video-watching activity on Facebook. That prompted a class-action suit from Hulu users, who accused the company of violating the VPPA. Hulu argued that it was not subject to the VPPA because it only disclosed personal information in its "ordinary course of . . . business." But a California district court in August clarified that the VPPA did indeed apply to online video services offered by companies like Hulu, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as Executive Editor for News and Features. Prior to that, she worked for a year covering financial IT on Wall Street for Incisive Media. From 2002 to 2005, Chloe covered technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from American University...
More »